


Gifted with little time

by copperplate



Series: Once we go on ahead [3]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Angst, Henry-centric, Multi, Polyamory, Post-The Raven King, Some explanations of the canon, tarot reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:50:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7543954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperplate/pseuds/copperplate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Say it," Maura prompted, as if she doubted Henry understood.<br/>"When Blue kisses her true love, he will die," Henry answered in little more than a whisper.<br/>"Exactly," Maura said, nodding approvingly. "And the prophecy came true. As every person in this house knew it would. That proves, without a doubt, that Gansey and Blue are soul mates. And not the cutesy-high-school-sweetheart-puppy-love type. No, they are the real deal. They are unbreakable, tied together by both destiny and love. So tell me, Henry. Where does that put you?"</p><p>***<br/>Henry gets his cards read by Maura. It doesn't go as expected.<br/>Follows "Once we go on ahead," and "I pray I'm not left behind".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gifted with little time

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Grey who asked for this in a comment (and put the idea to actually make it happen into my head).  
> Unbeta'd. Errors are my own.

Henry Cheng's fist hovered in front of the door. It was not a particularly special door. The paint was chipping on the edges. It had one of those handles with a little trigger you had to push down with your thumb instead of a traditional knob. Henry wondered if there was a special name for that type of handle and promised himself to Google it later.

This was not Henry's first time at 300 Fox Way, nor would it be his last. But today was different. He was not here with Gansey to kidnap Blue before her shift at Nino's. He was not about to spend the day lounging beneath a Beech tree that was apparently Blue's father. Or housing his soul. Or housing his body? Blue had explained it to Henry once, but after five minutes of talk of Tree-Lights and half breeds, Henry had to ask, "Chromosomally how does that work? I mean plant cellular structure is so fundamentally different than mammalian, how can a person be half tree, half human? Do you, like, have cell walls? Can your old man photosynthesize?"

Gansey's nature was that of unearthing truths, so Henry knew without a doubt that the wide-eyed expression on Gansey's face at his questioning was not shock, but genuine curiosity. Gansey, however, was smart enough to keep his mouth shut for a change. Blue's response was a dangerous glare that she had obviously picked up from Ronan.

"I'm serious!" Henry continued, excitement ringing in his voice. "Richardman, we should swab her cheek and check it out in the science lab. This is Nobel Prize winning levels of scientific discovery!"

"You are not using me for an experiment, nerd," Blue had growled between clenched teeth.

"Dickmeister, back me up here," Henry had pleaded. Gansey's eyebrows shot up above his hairline. His expression clearly screamed, _"Do NOT bring me into this."_

"Don't you look at me like that," Henry chided. "Blue's father is legitimately an undocumented species that is virtually immortal. And reproductively compatible with _Homo sapiens_. Blue, does your dad produce pollen or sperm? Or bo-" It was at that point Gansey had clamped a hand over Henry's mouth and pulled him away just before Blue's fist could land a right hook at his chest.

Henry repressed a smile at the memory. (He had secretly stolen some of Blue's hair from her hairbrush and was still internally debating whether or not to send it to his mother for further analysis). His good humour quickly vanished when he remembered what he was doing in front of Blue's front door.

While on their Awesometacular Adventure Across America, Aight! Maura has expressed a desire to do a reading for Henry. At first, Henry thought she had been joking. Or just trying to tease Blue through her friends. But once they had returned to Henrietta for a visit early April just in time for the  Easter Holidays (or the Spring Equinox according to Blue's family), Maura had called Henry when he was conspicuously alone in an A&W bathroom and had simply asked "Are you free tomorrow at 10 am?"

It was 10:03 am. Henry did not believe in being late (except when one is expected to be fashionably late), and he felt a pang of embarrassment knowing he had been standing in front of the door for at least 5 minutes at this point. The strange thing was that even he was not sure why he was hesitating.

Henry had experienced enough weird magical shit to shrug off the idea of harmless psychics. No matter how much the logical part of his brain screamed, _"HOAX!"_ he knew that Blue's family was the real deal. Instinct told him that. The way RoboBee was vibrating apprehensively in his pocket told him that.

Perhaps a part of Henry did not want to know his future. Gansey's crew had had enough of prophecies to last multiple lifetimes. Or perhaps Henry had no desire to confront his past. He had spent too many hours with psychologists confronting his past already. Maybe Henry was scared Maura would see more than he would like. Maybe she would find him wanting.

Henry sucked in a deep breath. _Face you fears, Cheng._ He was about to bring his fist down to knock when the door swung upon.

"We don't have all day, you know," Calla sneered from the doorway. She took a step back and waved her hand impatiently at him to enter.

"Right..." Henry said and stepped passed the imposing woman. In his head, Gansey's cheery voice sang, _"Excelsior!"_

"In here, Henry!" Maura called from the Reading Room. Henry made a sharp turn and stepped into the room. The curtains were pulled closed, making it darker than a room should be at ten in the morning. Candles flickered on almost every surface, creating an ambiance eerie enough for any horror movie. Henry was incredibly grateful his nostrils were not assaulted with the heady smoke of incense, which he almost expected given the setting.

In the middle of the room was a small table set up with a deck of cards. On one side there was a single, empty, foldable chair. On the other there were three, the middle of which was occupied by Blue's mother. Henry noted how alike Blue and Maura looked. However, where Blue had youthful innocence to her eyes, Maura had a slight fatigue. Maura had lived through more than enough darkness to have added a weariness to her bearing. Henry could tell that Maura was not a woman to be trifled with. He could see all of Blue's fierceness and fearlessness in the set of Maura's shoulders, in the straightness of her back.

"Please, sit," she said with an inviting smile. Henry took up the chair in front of her and looked down at the single stack of cards on the table and the empty chairs on either side of Maura.

"Sometimes we need three for a reading. Sometimes we don't," Maura explained at his questing eyes. "Sometimes we even need Blue to help everything focus. But for you..." here she paused, and looked Henry straight in his eyes. "I think our privacy is important."

Henry felt a bead of sweat forming on his left temple. It wasn't even hot in the room. He made sure his features were blank. He would not show fear in front of this woman. Respect, yes. But not fear.

"How does this work?" Henry asked, refusing to break eye contact first.

"For this to work, we need honesty," Maura said, folding her hands on top of her cards. "When I ask a question, you need to answer with the truth. When I tell you to pick a card, you need to use instinct, not thought. Simple, no?"

 _Truth..._ Henry thought. Truth and Henry were not on the best of terms. The truth was that Henry was not good at trusting. The truth was that Henry fought with his fears every day. The truth was that Henry had always believed the future was best left unknown.

"I want you to use me as means to see yourself," Maura continued. "Here I am not Blue's mother. Here I am no longer Maura. Here, I am a voyeur and ghost writer to your story. Do you understand?"

Henry nodded.

"Good. So as a gesture of good will, I am going to grant you a bit of honesty first," she said, placing her hand on the cards and sliding them away from herself and Henry.

RoboBee buzzed a warning in his pocket. Henry felt he knew what was coming.

"I raised Blue to confide in me," Maura said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Blue understands that she can tell me anything and not be judged or shunned or turned away. I am very lucky to have a daughter like her. And I am even luckier that my daughter trusts me with her secrets."

_Oh god, I'm going to get "the talk"..._

Henry kept his expression as blank as possible. He wondered if Gansey had gotten the same treatment. He could imagine Gansey squirming uncomfortably in this very chair, spewing platitudes and reassurances along the lines of, _"Your daughter's virtue is safe with me."_

Henry had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing. If Maura wanted to intimidate him, she would have to try harder than that. She would need a knife or a gun or a deep dark pit.

 _I've made your daughter writhe with pleasure beneath me,_ he thought cruelly. _What do you have to say about that?_

"Blue has told me about her relationship. With Gansey. _And_ you. I can't say I understand it, but I can say I've never seen my daughter happier." Maura took a deep breath.

 _Probably for dramatic effect,_ Henry thought.

"That being said,"

_Here it comes._

"I worry for you," she finished.

Henry's thoughts stuttered. He blinked at Maura. Twice.

"You worry _for_ _me_?" Henry repeated.

"Yes," Maura said simply. "You are aware of Blue's curse, no?" she asked.

Henry nodded. He was there that awful day. The day Blue's lips killed Gansey, as was foretold over and over again. The day Gansey had made the ultimate sacrifice to save all of them. The day Gansey proved to be the noblest soul Henry had ever met, cementing Henry's love and loyalty for the rest of his life.

"Say it," Maura prompted, as if she doubted Henry understood.

"When Blue kisses her true love, he will die," Henry answered in little more than a whisper.

"Exactly," Maura said, nodding approvingly. "And the prophecy came true. As every person in this house knew it would. That proves, without a doubt, that Gansey and Blue are soul mates. And not the cutesy-high-school-sweetheart-puppy-love type. No, they are the real deal. They are unbreakable, tied together by both destiny and love. So tell me, Henry. Where does that put you?"

Although this was not the direction Henry was expecting his reading to go, the question was not new to him. The truth was that Henry asked himself this question every day. Blue and Gansey always included him. They shared themselves with him with full consent and generosity, and he felt blessed every moment he was a part of their journey. But in the back of his mind, he knew, he _always_ knew, that he was a third wheel. Hell, he was sometimes even a _fifth_ wheel when Ronan and Adam were around. There was a history there he was not a part of. There was a prophecy there that did not include him. And no matter how much Gansey and Blue swore they loved him, he knew deep down that their love for each other came first.

"Honesty," Maura reminded him, waiting patiently for him to answer with her arms crossed.

"I don't know," he said, the words choking him.

"You love them," Maura said more than asked, but there was still the hint of a question in her voice.

"Yes," he said, without the tiniest bit of hesitation. He looked at her with the truth shining in his eyes.

_I love them more than anything._

They stared at each other in silence. Henry felt his heart beating, swollen with all the tender feelings he held for Blue and Gansey. And Maura stared back. Judging. Reading. Reflecting.

"When the third sleeper was wakened," Maura spoke, remaining still as a statue, "we did a reading. A complete reading, all of us, all together, with all our cards. We created a map of the past, present, and future for all the major players. We wanted to know if we were safe."

Maura finally broke eye contact with Henry, reaching back for her deck of tarot cards. She started shuffling them as she continued speaking.

"We saw the possibilities, not the outcomes. We saw the sleeper take Adam. We saw Ronan's very essence threatened. We saw Gansey's branch ending as his life ended, as was always his fate, entwined with Blue's love. We saw Noah's sacrifice and his final desire for his friends. We saw Glendower's permanent sleep, and the remnants of his court trying to find their place in our time. The past showed our loss of Persephone and more loses to come in our family. We saw all the branches and all the ways things could have ended, but not the way they did. The point was never to see the future. We can't really do that. We can only see how to build it. But do you know what was missing?"

"Actual useful information?" Henry replied cheekily. Maura gave him an unimpressed look before holding out her deck of cards to Henry. Henry slowly reached for them, unsure what she wanted him to do.

"You, Henry," she said, not letting go of the cards as Henry tried to tug them from her fingers. "Nowhere in that reading in a house full of psychics did anyone see anything about you. And if what Blue tells me is accurate, it was you who made all the difference in the world."

Maura slowly let go of the cards, letting Henry withdraw them in his hand.

"How is that possible?" she asked.

"Huh?" was the most eloquent response Henry could muster. He looked at the deck in his hands, and then back at Maura.

"How come we didn't see you coming?"

Henry swallowed. All he could do was offer the truth.

"I don't know. But I can guess."

Maura quirked an eyebrow at him, waiting.

"Do you know who my mother is?" he asked. Henry wasn't an idiot. After his terrifying pant-less run-in with the Gray Man, after getting a call from Gansey from the hitman's own phone, Henry was introduced to a tapestry of patterns and connections to the people in his life. If Maura knew the Gray Man (well, more than simply _knew_ if Blue was to be believed), then by now she might have heard of the name Seondeok.

"I have heard rumours..." Maura started but Henry cut her off by holding up the hand not holding the tarot cards.

"You promised me honesty," Henry chided. Maura smirked.

"Then yes," she replied.

"My mother can be very protective of her secrets," Henry explained. "The fact we are talking about her now would not sit well with her. And neither would the idea of a psychic learning things about her through me by simply flipping through a stack of cards." For emphasis, Henry started shuffling Maura's deck. "I wouldn't put it past her to have taken some...uh, 'precautions' to ensure our family remains hidden from all-seeing eyes."

"What kind of precautions?"

Henry held up his index finger and wagged it reprovingly.

"My mother's business is her own. You want to bark up that tree, give her a call and ask to read her fortune, I'm sure she'd love that."

Maura bowed her head, ceding the point.

"May I ask something else, then?"

Henry shrugged his consent.

"How did you save Gansey?"

"I thought you knew," Henry said, a little taken aback. "Cabeswater saved him."

"No, that's not what I meant. How did _you_ save him?"

"But I didn't," Henry's voice carried a note of shame. "The others did. I was more sitting on the side lines having a panic attack."

"Henry," Maura said sternly. "Gansey was supposed to die. He was not supposed to come back. His branch ended. But you were a factor we couldn't see and his branch continued. It was you. What did you do?"

Henry closed his eyes, trying to think. He was not magical. He was not a dreamer. He was no mirror. He was far from a king. Thinking back to that awful day that almost left him shattered, he tried to remember being remotely useful. He came up blank.

"Maybe I wasn't in your reading because I wasn't important."

The self-deprecation was heavy in his voice and Maura saw his shoulders slump.

"Shuffle the deck then draw three cards and place them in front of you from left to right," she told him. Henry hesitated at the sudden instructions, but complied.

With practice from many Litchfield poker nights, Henry deftly shuffled the cards with more flare than really required (earning a smirk from Maura), and placed the deck in front of him. He had decided to make this as anti-climatic as possible for his own sanity's sake. Thus, without further dramatics, he simply flipped the top three cards. The first card Henry drew was that of a giant chalice overflowing with water, held in a large open palm. He placed it to his far left and drew the second card. There were four staffs on this card, two on each side of two figures in front of a palace, their arms raised high above their heads in victory. He placed that in front of himself. Then Henry drew his third and final card. It possessed nine staffs, and a man holding one of them, looking apprehensively over his shoulder. He placed this card on his right. He then looked up at Maura and waited.

Maura stared down at the cards, her lips pursed in thought. She stared the longest at the first one he had drawn, almost looking like she was surprised to see it there. Then she laughed.

"You wonderful boy," she said, her smile wide and earnest. Her reaction made Henry even more uncomfortable than if she had been shocked or angry.

"This," she exclaimed, tapping the card with the chalice, "is your card, Henry. The Ace of Cups. It is your foundation."

"Okay... sure," he said slowly, playing along.

"It is the luckiest card in the entire tarot. Did you know that?"

Henry hadn't.

"It's literally the Holy Grail, Henry," Maura continued. "A card representing endless possibilities and love in all its forms. This is what you are, Henry. Something more."

 _Something more._ The words reverberated under Henry's skin.

"The human condition involves three primal fears," Maura explained to Henry's bewildered expression. She counted them off on her fingers. "The fear of annihilation, the despair of absurdity, and the desolateness of loneliness."

_Yep, those ring a bell._

"The Ace of Cups is the power to overcome them all. The power to find happiness in oneself and one's future. You possess ultimate possibility. For not only yourself, but for those you love. Now tell me again, did you truly do nothing after Gansey died? Because your card says otherwise."

Henry's heart was beating fast in his chest. Everything Maura said was everything he wanted with all his being, everything he wished he could be... but wasn't.

"All I did was ask the others to save him. I just asked them to try. Because I..." Henry's voice cracked. "I couldn't do anything. He was dead and I couldn't do anything."

Maura nodded encouragingly.

"Sometimes merely asking for the impossible is what is required to achieve it."

Maura reached across the table and took Henry's hand. She pressed his palm down on the card.

"Don't forget what you are," she said. "You don't have to be magic to be important. You matter so much more than you think."

Henry felt his heart constrict. He wanted so badly to believe her. Why was it so hard to believe her?

Maura took her hand off of Henry's and pressed two fingers to the middle card.

"The four of wands," she said. "This card is in the position of the present. It is a card that encourages you to leave your comfort zone for new experiences. By opening yourself up you will be able to find new sources of joy. If I were to guess, and I don't need to because I'm psychic," Maura winked at Henry playfully, "I would say this card represents your little adventure with Gansey and Blue. Both in terms of traveling to new places, and in terms of your relationship. What do you think?"

Henry immediately thought back to that day in Birmingham when he took a chance and confessed his desires to Blue and Gansey. He had thought they were going to mock him for it, or misunderstand his love for lust, but instead they embraced him and loved him in return. From there they had made more happy memories than he could count. And it was all because he had defied expectations (even his own), and had taken a gap year to fool around with Dick and Jane.

"This is getting eerily too close for comfort," Henry said with a sheepish smile.

"Readings aren't supposed to make you feel comfortable," Maura replied. "Speaking of which..." and then she tapped the third card on Henry's right. "This card, the nine of wands, is almost the opposite of the four of wands. It represents a resistance to a potentiality that is making you feel threatened. It is in the position of your future. There is something you are dreading, Henry Cheng. And it is causing you to close yourself up after all the progress you have made this year. What is it that is making you so worried?"

RoboBee shook so violently in Henry's pocket, he had to clasp a hand over it to still its agitation.

_Ah._

Henry could think of a million answers to that question. He feared the day the remaining Laumoniers would find him and finish what they started. He saw a future where Gansey and Blue get married and have kids and Henry is nothing more than Uncle Cheng, who comes down to visit once or twice a year but is not longer part of their unit. He could see a moment in time where his mother considers him a liability and cuts all contact with him, or worse, sacrifices him to her enemies. There was another future where Ronan asks Henry to give RoboBee back, and a broken-hearted Henry is unable to refuse Ronan his birthright. Henry could even see a world where all his friends go on to greatness and  he ends up mundane and alone.

The only certain future was this: come September, Henry was going to Stanford. Gansey had yet to accept one of his multiple Ivy League offers (with time running out), and Blue was going to a small Virginia college whose name Henry for the life of him couldn't remember, but it had a reputable international exchange program. Their separation was inevitable. And Henry was enough of a realist to know how rarely long distance relationships lasted. Especially when you were the third wheel.

Henry knew he had been quiet too long, but the words to express all his doubts were lodged in his throat.

"This card is a warning," Maura pressed on despite his silence. "Don't hold yourself back. It will do you no good. Face your fears, Henry, with open arms and an open heart. Change isn't always a bad thing."

 _Easier said than done,_ Henry thought bitterly. Henry spent years facing his fears. His fear that the past wonderful year would become meaningless in the long run was something he couldn't really face. It was merely a future that either would or wouldn't happen.

"What about the things I can't control?" Henry asked. "What am I supposed to do about them?"

Maura smirked and tapped her fingernail on the Ace of Cups.

"There is no such thing as a fate you can't control, Mr. Possibility. You are, after all, a man used to getting things your way." Henry couldn't deny it. "And it's not because you are privileged or spoiled, even though that may also be true." Again, Henry couldn't deny it. "It is because you make things happen. You are no blind follower to something as irrelevant as destiny. You create the path you walk. I think we couldn't see your branch, not because of something your mother may have done to hide you, but because your branch is only formed the moment you will it. The Grail's gift is to defy fate, and that is what you are."

With those words, Maura collected Henry's three cards and placed them back into her deck. She shuffled the deck three times and then put them back in the centre of the table where they had rested when Henry had first walked into the Reading Room.

"Is that it?" Henry asked uneasily.

"Hardly. Now is the hard part where you go get to live your life, kiddo."

Maura pushed back her seat and stood up. Something had changed in her demeanor. She was no longer the fortune-teller. She was back to being Maura Sargent: Blue's mother and hippie flower child.

"Tea?" she asked as she started heading out of the room.

"No thanks," Henry replied, getting up himself. He had had enough warnings from Blue about the type of tea they served in this house. "I should be going."

"Fair enough." Maura reached out and gave Henry's arm a comforting squeeze. "I know you have a lot to think about. But remember, whether you take what was said today to heart or ignore it all, there is nothing I or any other psychic in the world could say or do to determine your future. Only you have that right. Oh, and the reading is twenty dollars. You can leave cash on the table and let yourself out."

And with that, Maura disappeared down the hall into the kitchen.

"Right..." Henry mumbled, pulling out his wallet and slamming Andrew Jackson's face onto the table. He turned and headed towards the front door but he only made it a few steps before he found his path barred. Standing before it, like a mighty gatekeeper, was Calla, arms crossed in front of her chest and a scowl on her face (or maybe that was just how her face always looked. Henry wasn't sure).

"Hand," she said tersely reaching out to him.

"What?"

"Give. Me. Your. Hand," Calla repeated, enunciating each word as if she was talking to a toddler. Henry, bewildered, offered her his hand. She brushed two fingers across the top of his knuckles and closed her eyes.

"Your mother..." Calla began, before sucking through her teeth. "Is quite the bitch."

A snort escaped Henry before he could stop himself. Calla's eyes flashed open with both amusement and danger, causing Henry to clamp his jaw shut before he said something stupid.

"Don't become her." Calla's voice was full of both warning and challenge. As if she wanted to add, _"If you do, I'll break your legs,"_ but didn't. Calla withdrew her fingers and  pushed past Henry, leaving him free access to his exit.

Henry opened the door and stumbled into the blaring sunlight. He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do with himself, still too awed with what just happened to think properly. Fortunately, the bright orange monstrosity sitting idly at the curb was enough to distract him.

Henry walked up to the Pig, unsure if it was the original or the dream, opened the passenger side door, and climbed into the front seat. Gansey sat in the driver's seat, kneading his bottom lip with his thumb.

Henry, without speaking, pulled on his seat belt, leaned back into the seat, and stared out the windshield, taking in the warm Henrietta spring day.

"I'm here," Gansey said slowly. "If you want to talk about it. But I understand if you don't."

Henry let out a dramatic sigh. What was he supposed to say?

"Did they make you go through that too?" Henry asked. "Is it some kind of initiation in order to date Blue or something? Do they get a kick out of fucking with our heads?"

"I've indeed had the pleasure of a reading. About two years ago," Gansey said, rubbing his hands over his face at the memory."They made us do a reading together, Ronan, Adam, and I. One card for each of us. Adam went first. He drew the two of swords."

"Which means?"

"Indecision. I think at the time he was deciding between staying at home and suffering his father's abuse, or coming to live at Monmouth, which to him meant accepting my charity and thus being in my debt."

There was bitterness in Gansey's voice as he uttered the last part of the sentence.

"Which did he choose?"

"The third choice, naturally. The attic room in St. Agnes. Courtesy of Ronan."

"And why wasn't that considered 'charity'?" Henry asked.

"Probably because he still had to pay rent." Gansey grinned, as if sharing an inside joke with someone not present in the car. "Then it was Ronan's turn, " he continued. "He... didn't want to participate." Henry had a feeling something else happened that he was not being told, but when it came to Ronan he knew it was better not to press the issue and instead let Gansey go on. "Then it was  my turn. I asked Blue to pick the card for me. They said it was all right if I let her choose on my behalf."

"And?"

"She picked the Page of Cups."

A smile touched the edges of Gansey's lips. "That's Blue's card," he explained. "The picture on it even looks like her. Maura did not like that. She said Blue's energy was interfering and I had to pick one myself. So I did." His smile completely broke out onto his face. "I picked the Page of Cups too."

 _Soul mates_ , Henry thought, and felt a pang of jealousy. He did not pick the Page of Cups. Blue was never meant to be his. And likely neither was Gansey.

"Maura was... very displeased." Henry could tell that was polite Gansey-speak for, _"royally fucking pissed"_. "She made me pick again."

"And?"

Gansey's smile vanished and his eyes grew dark. "Take a guess."

Henry didn't need to guess. He knew Gansey. He knew.

_Death._

Silence filled the car. After a moment, Gansey turned on the ignition and let the angry growl of the engine vibrate life back into their bones. Henry could see how much the car comforted his lover in the way Gansey melted into his seat.

"Those women are fucking terrifying," Henry mumbled. Gansey's shoulder began to shake with silent laughter. "Seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if they were a cult of serial killers. Using magic and card readings to avoid the cops."

Gansey coughed trying to suppress his laughter.

"I bet they convert the bodies into furniture. And make rope out of ligaments. And knit yarn out of hair. And then tell everybody it's organic hemp. Oh, and they definitely use the bones for gardening tools. I bet they grow a lot of herbs."

"What on Earth are you going on about?" Gansey asked as his hearty laughter finally erupted from his lips.

"That house is cray-cray, man, that's all. Let's never go back, if that's all right with you."

Gansey's laughter began to subside and his expression became whimsical. "What about Blue?"

"I'm sticking with my previous statement," Henry retorted stubbornly.

"So you would leave her there in the clutches of the psychic serial killers?"

"Three, for all we know she's the evil mastermind running the whole show."

"Very likely," Gansey agreed sagely.

"Speaking of which, where is our mighty queen?"

"At the Barns," Gansey replied as he put the Pig into gear and pulled away from the curb.

"Five bucks Ronan will be dead by the time we get there."

"Seems like a waste. He doesn't even have hair to use to make yarn."

"But I can totally see her making a necklace out of his teeth."

"Jane does love her homemade jewelry."

The boys turned to each other and shared a smile. How wonderful it felt to be known.

_How I will miss you when you're gone._

**Author's Note:**

> Many many years ago, a young, naive version of me bought a deck of tarot cards and a handbook on reading them. Since then, they have been sitting on a shelf collecting dust and may have been used a total of two times (#moneywellspent). For shits and giggles, I dusted off those damn cards and drew three of them for Henry. I told myself no matter which cards I drew, I'd use them to write this fic. Scouts honour, I really did draw the Ace of cups, the 4 of wands, and the 9 of wands (in that order). So those were the cards placed in this story with their accommodating meanings, and holy shit did they ever fit with where I wanted this story to go and with who Henry is. I honestly don't believe in any of this psychic mumbo jumbo (I'm a cynical scientist at heart), so I'm just gonna call it serendipity at how it all worked out.


End file.
